PETS: Hay shortages, parched pastures hurt horses in drought

CHICAGO — The lush green pastures that usually provide a summer’s worth of food for Robin Broughton’s horses have dried up, leaving only nubs of parched grass that poke out of the cracked earth. Her riding arena is so dry and dusty that it has lured a large snapping turtle to lay eggs there.

But the drought’s harshest effect on many horse owners is the hefty cost of hay, which in some areas has become a scarce commodity because of the severe dry weather.

“We never fed hay in the summer in the nine years that I have been here,” said Broughton, who rehabilitates injured show horses at My Epiphany Stables in far north suburban Wadsworth, Ill. “Normally, all my pastures are green, tall and lush grass. I spend $1,000 every spring reseeding and fertilizing.”

Broughton contracts with a hay dealer and has no fear about running out of her supply. But she is spending an extra $8 a day to feed seven horses four times daily to make up for the lost pasture, she said.

For others — such as horse rescuers or farmers already struggling from the economic downturn — the circumstances are dire.

“It is a frightening situation,” said Donna Ewing, founder of the Hooved Animal Rescue & Protection Society, or HARPS, in Barrington, Ill. She is starting a fund to help struggling horse owners pay for hay, which she said in some cases is up to $8 per 70-pound bale — double the usual price.

“Our pastures are gone,” she said. “The grass is not growing.”

Last week, 26 southern Illinois counties were declared disaster areas under new U.S. Department of Agriculture rules because they have experienced a severe drought for eight or more consecutive weeks during the growing season, officials said.

Those counties now qualify for federal loans. "There will be more," said Scherrie Giamanco, executive director for the USDA Farm Service Agency for Illinois.

The state agencies that make up a Drought Response Task Force also met Thursday to discuss the effects on agriculture, wildlife and natural areas, as well as the ability to preserve drinking water supplies, said Jeff Squibb, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Agriculture.

“The most immediate issue is feeding livestock, but there are also substantial concerns about the state’s ability to harvest its corn and soybean crops,” Squibb said. “Those crops, especially the corn crop, are reaching critical development points right now. If there aren’t any rainfalls received, the crops could suffer substantial yield losses.”

Giamanco said there are many stipulations to meet before land can be released for grazing under the Conservation Reserve Program. Illinois farmers are paid to set aside areas of land for ecological and wildlife preservation through Aug. 1. After that, the lands become available anyway, she said.

Texas and Kansas were allowed to release conservation land early because of the drought, she said.

Many backyard horse owners rely on pastures to feed their animals in the summer, said Tracy McGonigle, executive director for the Woodstock, Ill.-based Hooved Animal Humane Society.

“With there being no rain and such a drought, the grass isn’t growing,” McGonigle said. “So we have to supplement horses with hay and grains.”

Hay shortages weigh heavily on DeeDee Golberg, who founded Spirit Horse Equine Rescue in Janesville, Wis. She said she realized the possible crisis in mid-June, when she called her usual hay dealers, about eight in all, and found few had any product to offer.